“There’s nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you’ve been missing the whole point of the ocean. Staying on the surface all the time is like going to the circus and staring at the outside of the tent.”
— Dave Barry
Photo from Dave Barry’s web site.
In Ian’s Ride, Karen Polinsky tells an inspiring story of Ian Mackay learning ways to approach life after he had been paralyzed from the neck down. One of the things I especially liked about the story was how it focused on the process of finding solutions rather than dramatizing a negative view of the situation.
A five-episode series, each one about a different ocean. The underwater video is stunning, and it does a good job of pointing out ecosystem interconnections.
Cities do, indeed, have their own ecosystems. These have developed over centuries of city growth, suburb growth, and other human impacts on the lands. This book added a new dimension to my understanding of how we are impacting nature.
Earth for All was published in 2022 as a report to The Club of Rome. As I read it, I realized that it was part of a “new wave” of literature about addressing our current global problems — a wave that was based on systems thinking.
I highly recommend Homewaters — for the way it introduces the components of the Puget Sound ecosystem, but especially for how it weaves the various parts together.